This invention relates to an improved armchair, to an improved compactly stacking armchair, and to a frame therefore.
The armchair of this invention preferably utilizes much of the structure of my invention shown and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 46,836, filed June 8, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,436 and also some of the structure shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 157,682 filed June 9, 1980, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,980.
As stated in those earlier applications, stackable chairs have heretofore usually been so designed that when nested in a stack there was considerable vertical space between them, often two or three inches. As a result, only a few chairs could be put into one stack; moreover, stacking them and removing them from the stack was difficult. Compact stacking has been rare, although it has been achieved with special structures. Compact stacking of armchairs has been even rarer.
Another difficulty with many stackable chairs was that in each the frame was made up of several frame members. lf these frame members were strong, they were usually relatively heavy; if they were light in weight, they were usually not sufficiently strong. Such chairs usually required a front horizontal stretcher to provide sideways stability, especially when the leg members were thin. This sometimes was uncomfortable in that the back of the sitter's legs would hit this front horizontal stretcher bar.
Heretofore, stackable chairs were especially heavy because they required such extra frame members. Stackable chairs made of steel tubing heretofore typically required either a stiff frame member or stiff shelf portion across the top of the back and another stiff frame member or stiff shelf portion across the front of the seat. As an alternative, the seat and the back had to be so rigid that they would provide the needed strength. The more rigid the seat or back was, the less comfortable it was.
Another problem with stackable chairs was their rigidity. This problem relates even to the chair disclosed in my earlier issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,845,986, which is otherwise excellent. In other chairs, too, rigid members or portions at the top or across the seat or across the legs added to the discomfort of the user. In some cases, a top bar across the back is convenient to the people who move the chairs from one place to another, but it does detract from the comfort if the sitter's back can come against it. Such rigidity was thought necessary to strength and stability, but it has tended to prevent a chair from being able to level itself on uneven floors. This has had particular disadvantages when such chairs were used in outdoor cafes, where stackability is very desirable, but where the inability of the legs to level to uneven surfaces made the chairs awkward, uncomfortable, or annoying to the users. Conventional rigid frame chairs have tended to rock on such uneven surfaces and, therefore, to bring the chairs into the minds of the users far too often.
Heretofore, stackable chairs, when stacked, have usually resulted in the frame of one coming against the frame of the other. Often this had done so in a manner such as to scratch the frames or to scrape off their finish. If they were spaced apart vertically so as to protect the finish so much space was left that the stack could not be compact, as remarked earlier.
Among the objects of the present invention are those of solving the problems enumerated above. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a comfortable, compactly stackable armchair; to provide a stackable armchair that does not need to incorporate a front, horizontal, rigid stretcher, especially one between the legs; an armchair that is not completely rigid so that it can flex sufficiently to accommmodate itself to an uneven floor; to provide a stackable armchair which can be relatively light in weight; and to provide a stackable armchair in which the frame members of each are protected from scratching and from rubbing together.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description.